Normally, taking a walk down a city thoroughfare isn't a harrowing experience. As in most of life, there's always a chance that something bad could happen, but it's a slim one at best. The odds of a pedestrian getting hit by a car, for example, certainly aren't worth losing sleep over.
Everything changes when the roads are slicker than a Teflon-coated hockey rink, and Muncie doesn't have enough money to address the problem.
On Monday evening I was taking my usual walk to campus and the Daily News newsroom when I noticed the roads looked a bit glossier than normal. The sun had transferred just enough heat to ensure the light coating of snow from earlier in the day would melt and refreeze into a dangerously icy mix. The vehicles on the road, even with the technological advances of traction control and anti-lock brake systems, were ill-equipped for Mother Nature's first wintertime practical joke.
If the cars weren't sliding through stoplights and swerving to avoid playing bumper cars, they were fishtailing at seemingly random intervals. Some of the cars even ended up on the sidewalk; unfortunately it was the one I was walking on. The normally routine commute was transformed into a high-stakes game where staying on the road and avoiding the crunch of a collision were the only objectives.
It was the first time I've ever had any serious concerns about being run down while walking on a sidewalk. A five-ton pickup truck sliding out of control and onto the sidewalk not twenty feet away also helped me change my perspective on winter driving. In the past, people were the problem because they didn't know how to drive in slippery conditions. The snow- and ice-covered roads were simply an obstacle most people didn't know how to deal with.
This year it's different. As the Daily News reported Tuesday, the Muncie City Street Department is cutting back resources for winter street maintenance. Supposedly, the department will still salt and plow the roads, but it will have to find a way to do it without overtime because of union regulations. That's all fine and well so long as the game plan to make streets safe has already been discussed and decided on.
If what I witnessed Monday night is any indication, the city needs a new plan for making the roads safe before someone is seriously hurt or killed. My experience, coupled with the 15 Monday evening accidents in about an hour that the Muncie Star Press reported Wednesday, paint a grim picture for the public works department. Some of the accidents were undoubtedly due to human error, but the road conditions I saw could only be safely conquered with superhuman efforts.
So what's a cash-strapped city like Muncie to do in this situation? Find more money, of course. I don't care what it takes, the money has to come from somewhere. Take it from other areas with superfluous budgets. Take it from important areas if the money is just sitting there waiting for a future project; finding money in the future will be just as hard as it is now, but it makes sense to take direct action now when people are in danger. Take it from door-to-door donation drives if the first two ideas don't work.
Money has to be found to pay for the resources to prevent the unnecessary loss of health and life. Whoever said money can't buy happiness was right, but in this case it sure as hell can buy some measures of safety.
Until that happens I'll be on high alert when the city allows roads to get dangerously slick. Just think how horrible it would be stuck with "Here lies Logan, gone to rest with our Lord, after being hit by a sliding Ford" on my headstone.
Write to Logan at lmbraman@bsu.edu
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